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A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin—and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending—or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?

Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.

In summary, a fountain of information from galaxies and black holes to quantum mechanics presented in such a way that is not only as easy to understand as it can be, but is an enjoyable experience to read.

16 of 16 found the following review helpful:


I'm impressed  Sep 26, 2006 By David P. Caldwell
I must say my first reaction was to be surprised at how much better Hawking is at explaining modern physics than my college instructors were. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle was just an equation I learned. Hawking made it seem like common sense.

Hawking tries a little too hard to be witty at times (and punctuates all of his jokes with exclamation points! just in case you missed them!), but all-in-all, this was a quite readable account of what's presently known about cosmology. I use the term "presently" guardedly, as just recently there was some big finding about dark matter (it exists!), but from now on, when there are new findings in physics, I want Hawking to explain them to me, because I feel like then I might understand them. That's why you should read this book.

The reason you should not read this book is because you have no interest in wrestling with abstractions with which you will never interact in daily life, and would rather read about global warming or Darfur or something a bit more topical and practical. This was still a hard read, and I feel like I grasped maybe 80% of it. For you to decide, but for a former engineering student, this was something I wish I had read when I was taking physics.

28 of 32 found the following review helpful:


Important but accessible classic  Sep 12, 2002 By magellan
This is probably the most readable book on those mind-boggling questions of cosmology and theoretical physics that engage many of the top minds today. Hawking explains it all in easily understandable language, almost conversationally, and even then, sometimes the concepts are tough sledding. But overall, this is a readable and enjoyable trip along some of the high roads of contemporary physical thought by one of its greatest thinkers. It had been some years since I'd had the time to read much about astronomy and cosmology, and this little book was a great place to start reading up on the subject again.

I usually try to do reviews that aren't simply a rehash of the material in the book, but I would like to mention one thing Hawking discusses since it was so ironic. I was taught, of course, about the Big Bang theory in college (and no, it's not about a hot party at Jimi Hendrix's place back in the 60's), and by that time it was pretty much accepted as an established fact. But Hawking points out that originally he had trouble convincing his fellow physicists that a singularity such as the big bang had actually occurred. His fellow physicists eventually came around to his view of things, but it took a while. However, Hawking discovered later that if certain quantum phenomena were brought into the picture, the necessity for a singularity disappeared--so he could have saved himself the trouble of the original controversy!

Overall, a great classic by a great scientist and teacher.

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:


The best introduction into theoretical physics  Jul 08, 2005 By Jesse Rouse
First, I must say that this book changed the way I think about the universe. Unbenownst to me, I was still thinking in terms of turn-of-the-century physics. Hawking brought me up to date, and made it interesting. Some may disagree, but I think Hawking's writing style is superb (for those who complained: Come on, how high can your expectations for someone explaining theoretical physics be? Were you expecting someone of C.S. Lewis' calibur or something?), and I often found his humor quite enjoyable. I would HIGHLY reccomend this book to someone interested in knowing where the field of theoretical physics is at (or at least was at. This book is very slightly behind the times now.), and how the universe is being understood by some scientists. I don't buy all of the views Hawkings advances, but they are very interesting to read about, and I think it is good to know where science is at right now. My only complaint about this book is that he should have made it longer, and he especially should have spent some more time explaining String Theory.

164 of 210 found the following review helpful:


No master of the written word  Dec 06, 1999 By David Blake
Hawking is no master of the written word. Early on, he warns us not to consult his earlier books for more detail - because they are "quite unreadable". He also admits that, during the production of this book, his editor bombarded him with comments and questions. The impact of this editorial input is plain. The book wallows from unnecessarily long complex sentences written in the passive sense to snappy anecdotes from Hawking's life.

I found the early chapters very useful as overviews of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The middle chapters - on black holes and the origin of the Universe - were clearly written with enthusiasm.

However, that enthusiasm seemed to fade towards the end of the book. The chapter on the arrows of time seems to have been lifted from an old speech. Here's what I'm about to tell you: this is what I'm saying: this is what I've just told you.

Also, the explanation of the cosmological arrow of time left a lot of questions hanging. Question: What will happen when the Universe starts to contract - will people start to experience time running backwards? Answer: Intelligent life could not exist because, by then, all the stars will have burned out. Well, OK - but does that answer whether time is in reverse or not?

Chapter 10 introduces string theory. Clearly this is an incredibly complicated subject and not capable of being explained in a book entitled "Brief History". However, the way the subject is introduced and then dropped is tantalising. Apparently, string theories are only consistent if space-time has either ten or twenty-six dimensions. All these extra dimensions are curled up into space of a very small size. I, for one, would have liked more explanation of what that means.

In summary, a useful but frustrating book that varies in tone as the pages turn. I feel a better populist book would have resulted if Hawking had used a ghost writer to interpret his ideas, rather than simply submitting his own words to the scrutiny of an editor.

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